WASHINGTON, DC – Following the release of President Trump’s 2019 budget proposal and details of his Administration’s infrastructure plan, Congressman Donald Norcross (NJ-01) – an electrician by trade, member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce and Co-Chair of the Rebuilding America Task Force – expressed serious frustration and disappointment.

Norcross said: “Candidate Trump’s top promise was to provide a trillion dollars to repair our infrastructure, but after over a year in office, he’s only provided for his billionaire buddies. He added over $1.4 trillion to the federal deficit and provided no way to pay for his tax scam, but now he refuses to provide new funding to fix our aging infrastructure and put middle-class Americans back to work. His weak infrastructure plan puts pressure on our cities and states and fails to deliver on his trillion-dollar-plus commitment.”

Today’s plan offers $200 billion in federal funding for infrastructure projects over ten years, and his budget proposal cuts critical infrastructure funding to the Department of Transportation by nearly 20%, the Army Corps of Engineers by 22% and calls for the full elimination of Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grants.

“Every family and company knows their budget reflects their priorities and President Trump’s priorities are all wrong,” said Norcross. “He cuts health, safety and environmental programs in our communities, and fails to provide adequate funding to tackle the opioid crisis. He’s again using implausible economics and spin, and proposing a budget that puts our country’s future at risk.”

New Jersey’s Future

At a White House meeting in September 2017, President Trump expressed optimism about funding for the Gateway Project to Norcross and a bipartisan, bicameral group of lawmakers. However, the infrastructure plan rolled out today offers an unrealistic 20-80 matching requirement.

Norcross added: “That percentage flips all previous funding formulas upside down and hurts New Jersey, the northeast region and our entire nation.”

The matching requirement rate used to be about 80% for the federal investment and 20% for the state and local investment. That means that for the $1 billion Direct Connect project on I-295 around Bellmawr, our communities would have been on the hook for $800 million under the Trump infrastructure parameters.

Related Content

• Norcross leads a discussion on creating jobs through infrastructure investments on November 30, 2017.
• Norcross issued a statement on his vote against the Republican’s billionaires-first tax bill on November 16, 2017.
• Norcross commented on the House budget vote that paved the way for the Ryan-McConnell-Trump tax plan on October 27, 2017.
• Norcross reacted to the Ryan-McConnell-Trump tax plan on September 27, 2017.
• Norcross was named Co-Chair of House Democrats’ “Rebuilding America” task force on September 13, 2017.
•  Norcross hosted colleagues in South Jersey for a day-long forum on ‘The Future of Work, Wages and Labor’ on August 4, 2017.
• Norcross expressed strong support for the new Democratic agenda ‘A Better Deal: Better Jobs, Better Wages, Better Future' on July 24, 2017.
• Norcross writes “first and foremost for me is raising wages” in an op-ed July 23, 2017.
• Norcross reacts to the House Republicans’ budget proposal on July 18, 2017.
• Norcross and colleagues introduce the Raise the Wage Act on May 25, 2017.
• Norcross called for robust infrastructure investments at a bipartisan press conference on Capitol Hill on May 17, 2017.
• Norcross reacted to the Administration’s tax reform outline on April 28, 2017.
• The Congressional Building Trades Caucus launches a bipartisan infrastructure series on April 5, 2017.
• Norcross was appointed to serve on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce and he vowed to represent New Jersey working families on January 5, 2017.

###

Contact: Ally Kehoe, Communications Director
ally.kehoe@mail.house.gov